His importance should not be underestimated.
Before this afternoon’s game against Southampton, Manchester City were in ‘crisis’. Of course, for a top team, it only takes a couple of bad results for ‘crisis’ talk to emerge, but being third at the halfway point of the season did feel like cause for concern given City’s ambitions.
Before today, City had lost three of their last four Premier League games, to Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Leicester City. Pep Guardiola’s side dominated all of those matches, in terms of possession and shots, and yet they lost them all. Their soft underbelly had been exposed.
That soft underbelly present due to the absence of their midfield general Fernandinho.
And Guardiola always knew that this was coming. City did all they could to sign Jorginho from Napoli but failed due to the player’s desire to follow Maurizio Sarri to Chelsea. He had to come up with other solutions.
The Community Shield between City and Chelsea saw the Spaniard experiment with John Stones in the holding midfield role for a short spell towards the end of the game that was already won. He demonstrated the necessary composure on the ball and ability to play calm, simple passes that we all know he can play, but wasn’t tested defensively in the midfield area and offered little creativity.
Guardiola has also tried deploying Ilkay Gündogan in this position, but he lacks the defensive solidity to play as a single pivot against good opposition.
They’ve not uncovered a deputy for their Brazilian leader and his thigh injury has caused untold damage. On Sunday he was back, on Sunday City were back.
Against Southampton at St Mary’s, City looked more assured defensively (bar Southampton’s goal which came from a Zinchenko mistake). They also benefited from his lofted through balls in behind to their wingers.
No other player in the City squad has his combination of strength in the tackle, ability to read the game and make interceptions, his burst of pace out of a tight space, and composure under pressure.
A lot has been made of City suffering without Benjamin Mendy and Kevin De Bruyne, both of whom have missed most of this season through injury, but recent results have shown us that there’s one player in the squad they really can’t do without: Fernandinho.
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